


Getting Close to Steady Nerves

by marbodt



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cussing, I'll Also Add Warnings Per Chapter, M/M, Multi, Trans Marco Bott, Trans Sasha Blouse, i'll update tags as i write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:02:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28912806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marbodt/pseuds/marbodt
Summary: Marco Bodt has had a relatively normal life, going to school and making friends. While he just started college, he's quickly making new friends, new memories, and new mistakes. Marco's got a lot ahead of him, and he doesn't know if he's ready yet.
Relationships: Marco Bott/Jean Kirstein, Mikasa Ackerman/Sasha Blouse
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hey thanks for looking at this fic! I'd like to give a quick thanks to the two friends of mine who read this over and gave me courage to post this, very grateful for you guys and also everyone who will read this!

Marco was always a scared person. A list of phobias that seemed a mile long rattled around in his head from a young age, from bugs and large birds to needles and ghosts, among other things. He was still brave, though. Nothing would stop him from doing something if he really had to. Despite his childhood of fearing things, that seemed mundane when he looked back on it, he kept moving. Marco's parents always told him he was a strong person while growing up.

So, Marco's fears slowly faded. Something about ghosts still freaked him out a bit, but considering it wasn't something he'd ever have to deal with logically, he didn't mind.

At some point in his childhood, Marco's parents died in a car crash. His grandma told him he was 12, but he didn't remember it enough to know for sure. A lot of that time period was such a blur to him, the memories soon before and after his parents passed away were foggy in his mind. He never meant to block it out, he didn't even want to, really. He couldn't even remember the last words his parents said to him. Despite his old, faded fears being mostly gone, something about the crash he wasn't even there for scared the life out of him. He refused to get in a car for weeks, struggling to keep from freaking out when he was eventually able to get inside one. As time passed, that fear faded, too, but he still refused to let himself drive.

His grandma had told him sometime after the crash that "People get into car accidents all the time, your parents didn't do anything wrong." Despite not remembering much from the months around his parents' death, he remembered those words. While it may have helped at the time, it stuck with Marco and built a foundation for his fear of driving. He didn't want to ever cause an accident, didn't want to hurt anyone. Of course, his mom didn't crash the car on purpose, and he didn't blame his mom for his dad's death, but the thought that he could inadvertently hurt someone he cared about struck him down every time he sat in front of a steering wheel.

The quiet sound of birds outside of Marco's window made him shift his attention from his thoughts and his phone to outside. Nothing was happening and the streets were quiet. Although it was almost time for him to get ready for school, he so desperately wanted to close his eyes after a night of restless sleep.

"Marco!" came a yell from down the stairs, his grandmother knocking on the wall. "Maria!" More knocks. Footsteps, which sounded more like stomps, faded off, now barely audible. "Antonio!" More knocks, much quieter this time.

Marco sighed heavily and sat up in his bed. His head hurt, most likely from staying up most of the night on his phone, and he was anxious about school. 

"Camilla!" was heard, quiet, and although Marco knew his grandma was probably knocking on the wall, he couldn't hear it.

His mornings were usually chaotic during the school year, and he was already missing the quietness of the summer. He could already hear his siblings walking around, mumbling half-assed good mornings to their grandma. Marco was the oldest one in the house still going to school. His brother Leon was three years older than him at 22, but decided he didn't want to go to college. Leon decided to take a gap year and that gap year turned into two, then into three. Marco knew his brother wasn't going to college anytime soon, if ever. 

The rest of his siblings were younger than him, and Leon wasn't a very fatherly type of person, so Marco ended up taking care of his siblings the most. Their grandma helped, but five kids was quite a bit to deal with for someone who already raised her own children. Their grandma took them in right after their parents passed away, the youngest of them, at the time, only 3.

Despite Marco only being 12 at the time, his grandma always mentioned to him how much of a help he was taking care of everyone after the accident, and although Marco doesn't remember it, he believed it. His siblings were closer to him than his parents, even before they died. Marco was always taking care of them, anyway.

"Hey, Marky, you up?" Maria asked, knocking on Marco's door. Maria was the youngest of the bunch at 9 years old, but Marco felt the closest to her despite their age difference.

Marco stretched his arms and legs out, both at once, before answering. "Yeah, what's up? You can come in if you want."

Maria slowly opened the door before sliding inside with a grin, shutting it quickly and quietly behind her. "I stole Camilla's old shirts, and while I was in her room I found this!" As she said that, she pulled out an old picture of the four youngest standing in front of their old house. Marco internally cringed despite the fond memories from their first home. Seeing himself when he was younger, his long hair and chest enough to prove he wasn't always Marco stung every time. "I know you don't like old pictures like this, but look closer!" Maria walked next to Marco at his bedside. 

Marco looked over the picture closer, noting the lack of Leon, their parents, but also noted the presence of their old pet cat, Fork. Marco smiled and pulled Maria in to ruffle her hair. "Thanks for showing me, but whatcha think Camilla's gonna say when she sees you've been snooping through her things?"

Maria huffed and pulled away from Marco, trying to fix her hair despite the fact she hasn't even begun to get ready for school yet and her hair was ratty. "She won't find out. Get ready for college, old man!" She wiggled her head side to side with a cheesy smile and hid the photo under her shirt before running out the door. 

Marco laughed to himself before getting ready, lazily putting on his clothes, in no rush whatsoever. His grandma always woke them up plenty early so they could have breakfast, even though they usually didn't eat it. Cereal gets boring when you have it every day, after all. Their house had a total of two bathrooms. One upstairs, that Marco and Maria shared, and one downstairs, which Antonio and Camilla shared. Marco and Maria got along just fine, but Antonio and Camilla, well…. 

"Camilla, piss off!" Antonio shouted, and a door slammed.

"Oh boy." Marco muttered, focusing on getting his hair brushed out evenly. Maria snorted beside him, patiently waiting for Marco so he could braid her hair. "I'd be willing to bet grandma's gonna-"

Before Marco could finish his sentence, their grandma started yelling. "Antonio Bodt, you let your sister in the bathroom this instant otherwise I will ground you! I do not care if it's the first day of school!"

Maria giggled, Camilla was heard making what sounded like dry sobs, and Antonio was saying every bad word that wasn't really a swear he knew of. Marco just tapped his comb against his head, checking from side to side to make sure his hair looked okay. 

After he braided Maria's hair, went downstairs and settled the argument between Antonio and grandma, and stole some chocolate bars from Leon's stash to distribute to the others, he began herding everyone outside to the car.

"Marco, you're a saint, child." His grandma smiled up at him, patting his back. "Although I suppose you're not a child anymore, you're in college!" She could barely hold back her excitement, but Marco could barely hold back his grimace.

Marco didn't really want to go to college, but it was his best option. He wasn't going to pay to go to some big fancy one, especially not when there was a community college in the city that his friends were also going to. He also didn't feel like working would be very fun, so he wanted to put it off for as long as possible, or at least until he found something he'd actually want to do.

Everyone got in the car, slowly getting out one by one. Maria left first, her elementary school closest to their house. Camilla left after, the high school being along the way to the middle school. Antonio left last, besides Marco, the middle school next on their stop. Finally, Rose Community College. Marco looked at the large building with a mix of excitement and fear. He didn't mind school, but it certainly wasn't fun. His friends would be there, but new kids would be something he'd have to deal with, too. 

"Bye, grandma." Marco quickly said, hopping out of the car with his backpack, swinging it over his shoulder as he was out. 

She smiled at him, yelling "Good luck, kiddo!" at him before starting the car and getting ready to drive off.

Marco talked with his friends through a text group chat over the weekend to figure out where they'd meet up before heading to the 'assembly' the school had planned. Sure enough, in the outdoor eating area of the cafeteria, by the furthest table to the back and left, were his friends.

"Hey jackass, we've been waiting for you!" Eren yelled out, waving his hand impatiently at Marco. Beside him, his adopted sister Mikasa rolled her eyes. 

Marco walked over quickly, trying to get ahead of the small group of people walking through the tables to the main cafeteria. "I doubt you've been waiting long, Eren. Besides, you know my family. They're slow." Marco took a deep breath, the size of the school already starting to overwhelm him a bit. The passing time between classes was apparently 15 minutes, but it'd take quite some time to find classes in this big of a complex.

"Yeah, you're fine, Marco. You know Eren, he's a bit impatient." Armin smiled at Marco, placing his hand on his arm and squeezing it. They used to hug when they saw each other, but eventually they stopped during high school when kids would look at them funny. Marco smiled back.

Eren mimicked Armin, using a high pitched voice while doing so. "Anyway, Zeke said it's just an entrance thing, which doesn't really make sense, it's not like this college is open to anyone or something." Eren's sarcastic voice was hard to tell from his regular tone, but Marco had figured it out.

"Either way, it's not like we have anything better to do." Marco noted, pulling his phone from his pocket. "It starts at 8:45, right? So like, 7 minutes at this point. We could probably just head there now."

Everyone nodded a bit, starting to walk towards the big building situated near the center of the other buildings, the 'auditorium hall'. Mikasa looked behind herself and sighed, stepping back for a moment and then yanking on Eren's arm.

"Hey asshole, my ankle's still healing, you know." Eren almost spat at Mikasa, but her glare stopped him. At some point during the summer, Eren and his half brother Zeke were playing baseball, and Eren twisted his ankle while running. Eren kept bringing it up, trying to get us to pity him and do what he wanted. They all knew better than that and didn't give in, letting Eren's efforts be fruitless.

Mikasa wasn't one for laughing much, but she chuckled. "Maybe I'll break it again." Eren just punched her arm, but she was completely unphased.

The auditorium hall was a big, somewhat circular building with an odd shaped dome above it. It was bright in there, but the glass of the dome filtered out the sunlight enough to not let anyone get blinded.

"Well, I guess we're splitting." Marco pointed to the wall, where along it, letters were listed. Sure enough, the teachers there were yelling something about sitting by last names. "Do you think they'd notice if we all sat together anyway?"

"Maybe we should just split, in case they check or something." Armin said, stretching his arms out in front of him.

"I don't think they will, though." Mikasa vaguely nodded her head towards the signs that said ‘S - T’ where her girlfriend Sasha was sitting. "Pretty sure Blouse doesn't start with an S or a T."

The group walked over to where Sasha was sitting and talking with two others, both taller than her, even when sitting. They all turned as Marco's group came close enough, and Sasha nearly jumped out of her seat and into Mikasa's arms.

"Oh! I haven't seen you in forever!" Sasha sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

Mikasa smiled softly, "If forever means a week, then sure." Sasha let go of Mikasa, not wanting to attract any more attention than she already had by shouting and holding onto her for dear life.

"So this is your girlfriend?" The shorter of the two men sitting asked, grinning. "Mikasa, right? You don't seem like you're nearly as hyper as she is."

Eren made a face at him. "And who are you, asshole?"

"Oh, I'm Connie. This is Jean," Connie stopped for a moment to point beside him at the other person who was sitting, "and that's Sasha, but you knew her already. I think."

"Yeah, he did. He's Mikasa's grumpy brother I've mentioned." Sasha smiled at Eren as she spoke, a mischievous smile on her face.

Eren was about to say something, but both Armin and Marco put a hand on his shoulder. "You seem more tense than usual. You alright?" Armin said quietly, just so Eren and Marco could hear.

Eren shrugged, then nodded. "I'm fine. Ankle fucking hurts."

"Let's sit, then." Marco tugged on Eren's jacket sleeve gently, and the three of them went and sat behind Sasha's two friends. Mikasa and Sasha soon followed, sitting together. "How long do you guys figure it'll take for them to start?"

"Probably too long." Jean said, and Connie snickered. But suddenly, microphone feedback went throughout the auditorium, most people covering their ears as quickly as they could. "Spoke too soon." Jean mumbled.

"Good evening, everyone. I'm Mr. Smith, one of the history teachers in this fine establishment. Today, we're welcoming all of you to our school, hoping you will all become your best selves." The speech dragged on, and soon Marco wasn't paying attention anymore. Eren wasn't focused either, flicking little bits of paper at Jean and Connie. Marco watched Eren rip out small pieces of paper from inside his backpack, wadding them up, and then lining them up on his leg, and flicking them as fast as he could at the two boys in front of him. Eren had an awful smile on his face as he did this. 

Jean suddenly turned around, "Stop it, dumba-" One of the little paper wads smacked into Jean's forehead. "Fuck you!"

Eren just laughed. Luckily, Eren's laughter and Jean's voice were drowned out by the shuffling of other students in the hall and the booming voice of Mr. Smith over the microphone. 

"Eren, you're going to get us in trouble if you don't stop." Marco jabbed his elbow into Eren's side. Mikasa hadn't noticed Eren's trouble making yet, which was good for Eren. Mikasa kind of acted like a mom to him sometimes.

Eren rolled his eyes and sat back as much as he could without the chair tipping back into the legs of the person behind him. The whole auditorium floor was surrounded by rows and rows of cheap folding seats anchored to the floor that went up and back too many layers to count. Jean must have noticed that, and tipped his seat back into Eren's legs.

Eren leaned forward, close to Jean's ear. "I'm gonna kick your ass if you don't sit forward, fucker." 

Marco could tell Eren was about to pick a fight. Even Armin had noticed, as they were getting too distracting for him to listen to Mr. Smith's speech anymore. "Eren, stop." Armin said as sternly as he could. 

Eren took a deep breath, staring directly into the back of Jean's head. 

"Uh, Jean, right?" Marco asked quietly, tapping his shoulder. Jean looked behind him, not moving his chair forward any. "Would you mind moving your chair to not smash Eren's legs? I don't care if you do it later, but I'd rather not get kicked out of here on the first day."

Jean shrugged a little, leaning his chair forward.

"What the fuck do you mean you don't care if he smashes my legs later?" Eren glared at Marco as he spoke. Jean snorted at that, and Eren leaned forward again. "Y'know I could beat your ass right now, right?"

"Eren." Mikasa snapped out. 'If looks could kill', Marco thought. Jean stared at Mikasa even as she returned to talking with Sasha quietly. 

"Jean, dude, she's taken. And likes girls. If you fuck this up for Sasha, I swear to God, I will kill you." Connie leant in to say this to Jean, so Marco couldn't quite see his expression. He couldn't help but to feel a tinge of disappointment at that comment. He didn't know Jean at all, and he almost got into an argument with Eren already, but despite that, Marco still thought he was cute.

Mr. Smith’s speech had died down, and the audience of kids was growing restless. “So remember, everyone, your goal here is to have a good school year, get an education, and grow as people. We hope all of you will have a pleasant rest of your day.” Everyone was shuffling again, but Mr. Smith leaned to speak into the microphone once more. “Oh yes, hold on a moment, Mr. Ackerman has an announcement.” A shorter man with black hair walked up to the microphone, looking bored.

“Isn’t that your cousin Levi, Mikasa?” Eren asked, poking her shoulder.

“Yeah, so?”

“Do you think if I got his class you could tell him to pass me so I don’t have to do anything?” Mikasa’s hand moved suddenly, flicking Eren’s nose, and moving back into her lap. “Okay, okay, whatever.”

“Hello students, I’m Mr. Ackerman, I am a teacher in the home economics department here.” He cleared his throat, glancing back at the other teachers beside Mr. Smith. “As you all know, this college is free, but, contrary to what you all may think, parking is not.” Mr. Ackerman went on a bit about the parking situation before clearing his throat again. “Alright, the assembly is over. Don’t trample each other on your way out.” Kids started moving the instant they heard that. Armin and Marco stayed put, but Eren jumped up immediately. 

“Man, my ankle is killing me. Marco, won’t you be a dear and carry me to class?” Eren couldn’t stop himself from smiling like an idiot when he said that. Armin shook his head.

Marco entertained the thought of pretending he would carry Eren and then dropping him, but he’d risk messing up his ankle more, and then Eren would hold it against them all even longer. “You know, Eren, I’m sure your sister would love to.” Mikasa turned around to give Marco a completely unimpressed look.

“Sasha, what’s your first class?” Connie was staring at his schedule paper, tracing his finger through each line. “I’ve got biology with a Professor Hange.” 

“Not me, I’ve got, uh,” Sasha dug around in her pockets for a moment before pulling out her paper. “Oh. Mr. Ackerman. He seemed like an absolute pleasure.” Sasha laughed. “Your cousin, you said, Mikasa? If he’s mean to me I’ll let you at him.” Mikasa smiled and shook her head jokingly. Although Mikasa tried her best to seem like the cool, quiet type, Sasha really brought out her smiles more than anyone else.

“Oh, right, we’ve got our first class together, don’t we, Marco?” Armin asked, poking around in his backpack for his sheet. Marco pulled his own out from the pocket of his flannel, looking it over. “Okay, English with Mr. Bozado?” Marco let out an ‘mm-hm’ in agreement.

“You guys have him first period?” Jean asked, turning to the two behind him.

Armin double checked his paper. “Yeah, we do.”

Jean nodded a bit. “Can I tag along, then? I’ve got him first, too.”

Marco smiled a little, nodding. “Sounds fine, I mean, we’d just see you there anyway. You could help us find the class.”

“Yeah, that sounds fine with me. This place is kinda huge.” Armin laughed to himself, and Marco couldn’t tell if it was from nervousness or not. Eren was already walking away with Mikasa and Sasha, leaving the other boys behind. “Connie, do you think you’ll need help finding your class?”

“Huh?” Connie looked confused for a moment before realizing what he meant. “Oh, no, I’ll figure it out myself. See ya, Jean. And Armin and Marco.” He waved off to the group before getting up, walking out towards the front doors.

It was still a little full, but waiting a while was the right move for them, especially since people were still moving with no regards to the other people around them. “So, are you from Trost High then? I don’t think we’ve met you if you’re from Shiganshina High.” Armin asked Jean, folding back up his schedule.

“Yeah, Trost. Sasha and Connie, too.” Jean opened his mouth slightly and then closed it before asking, “I hate to ask, but isn’t Shiganshina High kinda shitty?”

Marco let out a laugh, covering his mouth. Armin looked at Marco with a smile. “Yeah, a bit. Oh, Marco,” Armin shook Marco’s shoulder a bit with excitement. “Your favorite Ms. Ral apparently switched schools to start teaching here!”

Marco smiled, nodding his head once. “Yeah, I have a class with her, last period. She told me she was moving to a college, but not here.”

Jean’s eyes moved through his paper, landing on the final line on the paper listing his last period. “Me too, actually. Well, the ‘having last period class with her’ part, that is.” The three watched as the auditorium’s members dwindled further and decided they could leave without much fuss. “So, shitty school, huh.”

“A bit, yep.” Armin replied again. “The kids there weren’t super uptight though.”

“Armin.” Marco said, biting his lip to hold from smiling. “You’re implying he’s uptight.” “Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean it that way.” Armin laughed awkwardly. Marco poked at him with his elbow, shaking his head in a teasing way. “It’s just the kids we usually meet from there are a bit…. Well, not the nicest, sometimes. Sasha, Connie and you seem alright, though!”

Jean let out a huff of air from his nose, a bit humored by Armin’s awkwardness. “Suppose so, Connie’s a bit of an idiot, so definitely not uptight, at least. Sasha too, actually.” The three of them walked across the way from the auditorium hall to the ‘aster building’ where their English class was supposed to be. After a bit of silence, Jean broke it, “What’s the deal with that idiot who kept flicking paper at me?”

“Oh, Eren.” Marco let out a noise that was a mix of a sigh and groan. “He’s not usually that bad, but he’s got a problem with his ankle. He’s grumpy.”

“The way you say that makes it sound like he’s still pretty bad, but he’s just worse right now.” Jean’s eyes moved from the building to his paper, reading the room number. “Room 22.”

The group walked inside the large doors to the building. “Well,” Marco started, cut off with a ‘hmph’ of protest from Armin. Armin never really liked talking bad about Eren, even if it was just them. Marco knew Armin had a little bit of a crush on Eren, but he still felt like Armin should be able to acknowledge Eren’s idiocy sometimes. “Anyway, we should probably go this way,” Marco pointed off to the left, “the door on the right says 31, the door on the left says 30, so I’m hoping that way has the lower room numbers.”

They walked down the hallway, finding the room easily enough. Mr. Bozado was sitting at his desk in the front of the room with his chair tilted forward, reading from a newspaper. The handful of kids who had already made it to class were sitting around, some talking to each other, others on their phones, and one reading a book. Marco and Armin sat down in the front row of the class, their usual seats. Jean looked at them as they sat, looked around the class a little, and then sat next to them, beside Marco. Mr. Bozado seemed completely uninterested in the students as he read.

A little while passed, and eventually Armin asked “Marco, shouldn’t class be starting soon?”

Marco pulled out his phone from his pocket just enough to see the time. “Less than a minute, it seems.”

As if on cue, the bell rang. Mr. Bozado was startled, falling forward a bit in his chair, and letting out a muffled yell. “Sorry, class.” He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and held it in his mouth for a moment, pulling it back after a short while. There was blood on it, but he seemed unphased. “Welcome to my English class, I’m Mr. Bozado. It’s the first day, you should all be freshmen, and I’m pretty sure the assembly was boring as usual, right?” Some kids nodded. “Right. So, if someone wants to pass these out for me, that would be great.” He waved a small stack of papers up, and when nobody got up right away, Armin sighed, getting up to pass them around.

“Looks so fun.” Jean joked, and Marco shook his head, rolling his eyes. This class seemed like it was going to be a little boring to Marco.

“You don’t need to read these today, it’s just the syllabus. Like I said, I’m pretty sure the assembly was boring, so how about we just have some fun in class today and call it good?” Marco raised an eyebrow to Armin as he walked past, Armin shrugging in response. “You guys can do whatever you want, just don’t lose the syllabus. We’ll talk about class stuff tomorrow.”

After Armin finished passing out the papers he sat back down next to Marco, leaning on his hand and staring at Marco and Jean. “I usually like English, but I don’t think this will be any fun.”

Marco snorted, leaning back in his chair. “Yeah.” This was going to be a long class.

* * *

Marco's second period ended up being a class with Eren, the same teacher Connie mentioned having earlier. Professor Hange started class with a quick hand clap, practically yelling "Good morning students of mine!" Eren kept his chin rested on his hand, while most of the other students, Marco included, flinched a little at the sudden yelling. "Oh, sorry! Just excited! Anyway, we're all gonna start off by sharing our names. I know it's kinda boring, but here's the deal, I'll bring in sweets for you guys sometime if I can't memorize your names by class time tomorrow." That got everyone's attention, more so than the yelling. "I'll start, I'm professor Hange! Now, I'd like you all to start in this corner and move back, then move to the front, then back, so on until everyone's told me their names. I'll walk around as you guys say your names so I can match faces to the names. Are we okay with that?"

There was a muttered agreement, and the students all began stating their names, the professor nodding along as they mentally wrote them down. Eventually they reached Eren. "I'm Eren Jaeger, nice to meet you." Marco raised an eyebrow at him, wondering if Eren was actually going to take school seriously for once.

Marco suddenly noticed professor Hange was standing in front of him and stuttered a little as he spoke, "I'm Marco Bodt!" Hange smiled and nodded before moving to the person behind him. He sighed, looking over at Eren again before looking back at the teacher. "Very formal, Eren." He whispered.

"Yeah, well, she seems nice." Eren made no attempt to whisper but still spoke softly. Marco noticed the slight twitch of professor Hange's lips into a frown. Marco thought for a moment, although not too sure what to think about it. A few of the other students were talking to each other quietly, but Marco kept an eye on professor Hange the whole time, wondering how the hell one could ever manage to remember the names of twenty-odd students in a day. They'd see if that would hold up, at least.

After going through all of the students they walked up to the front, another clap bringing everyone's attention to the front, but without the yelling this time. "Alright, now that that's over with,I'm gonna talk a bit about myself and class, and I'd like you all to ask some questions about anything if you have any! I won't pass out all the junk about how to behave and what we'll be doing until later, I'm sure most of you will get plenty of those today, so they can wait. Just raise your hand if you have a question at any point!" They went on, first starting with where they went to high school and college, talking about how college is a great opportunity, and about the importance of school in general. Basically, Marco thought, Mr. Smith's earlier speech, but thankfully much shorter. The conversation turned after that, as they started talking about their pets and interest in biology, and how they were originally planning on being a veterinarian before finding out biology was more science based than surgery based, which interested them much more. “Then I realized that I had a bit of a knack for teaching, and I liked doing it, too! So, that’s why I’m here.” They smiled, nodding their head at the class. 

Eren’s hand raised beside Marco, his chin still rested on the other. Professor Hange nodded in his direction. “How long have you been teaching?” 

“Oh, about 3 years, I think?” They smiled at Eren, and then looked around the classroom. After a moment, “Any other questions, then? Well, you all look pretty tired, so if there’s no more questions, you guys can go ahead and check out the campus.” That started the shuffling of feet and moving of bags, and they laughed. “Alright, go on, you’ve got my permission to leave.” With that said, everyone was getting up, walking out the door. 

“Thanks, miss.” One of the students said on the way out, and Marco noticed the same little twitch of a frown on the professor’s face. Then Marco realized he knew that little twitch, the disappointment behind it and the feeling of ‘well, that sucks.’

“Hey, Eren, mind if I stop to ask the prof a question?” Marco asked, poking Eren’s arm. Eren shrugged in response as he grabbed his bag. Marco idled around his seat, waiting as the last of the students walked out the door, leaving just Marco and Eren left inside with the teacher. Marco flicked Eren’s forehead playfully, hurriedly walking over the professor Hange’s desk before Eren could respond. “Hey, uh, professor Hange… uh… sir?” Professor Hange just about jumped from their seat as they stood. “Can I ask you something?”

As if knowing exactly what he was about to ask, they looked right at him. “Marco, right? I think you’re just about my new favorite student.”

Marco was a bit confused, as his question wasn’t exactly answered by that. “You’re trans, aren’t you?”

“I know it’s only the second class period of the day, but I’ve got a feeling you’ll be the only student to ask all day. But, I’m nonbinary.” Professor Hange was beaming, then pointed at Marco. “I feel you’ve either got some friends or you’re trans yourself, hm?”

“Uh, yeah, I am.” Marco suddenly felt awkward despite talking with someone who obviously wasn’t going to judge him on being trans.

Eren poked Marco’s arm with a laugh, “He’s also an idiot. If you figured it out, why didn’t you ask during class?”

“I don’t know, I thought it might be weird.” He shrugged a little, now wondering the same.

Professor Hange nodded again, “I understand, kids don’t always seem super... Well, friendly with stuff like this. I myself came out in middle school, most kids were just curious but some were really rude. I don’t blame you, Marco.”

Eren shrugged, obviously not quite understanding their shared issue, but still wanting to be a better person about things. A definite improvement from when Marco came out to him and Mikasa. “Well, uh, what’re your pronouns then?”

“That’s another question I don’t think I’ve heard a student say in a long time. They and them, and I don’t mind the others, but I know these kids don’t use them all or think of me as anything other than a woman when they’re saying ‘she’. I don’t say much though,” They all turned and looked as a student walked into class and grabbed a book they had left behind. “I don’t really want to argue with a bunch of kids about gender. They’ll figure it out eventually.”

“That makes sense.” Marco scratched at his nose, a little nervous still, despite, like he noted earlier, that the three of them there were all trans-friendly. “I think maybe you could ask everyone for their pronouns at the beginning of class, like my teacher Ms. Ral does.”

“Ms. Ral? Oh, she’s a sweetheart. I met her at the beginning of the teacher’s year about a week ago, we were all setting up our rooms and she said hi to me, and asked me my pronouns at one point after noticing a few of the other teachers were using a mix.” The smile on their face was a fond one, and Marco felt like it was one of more affection.

Eren sighed, obviously getting a little bored. Marco thought for a moment before speaking. “Well, professor, Ms. Ral likes those little porcelain animals, if you didn’t know that.” He gave a tiny bit of a smirk, still wanting to look nice. “We’ll see you tomorrow, though!”

“I’ll see you guys! Stay out of trouble, Eren!” 

Marco laughed, elbowing Eren. “Even a teacher who barely knows you can tell you get into trouble.”

“Yeah, you think so? Well they’re gonna be in for a treat when they realize you’re a slacker.” Eren elbowed him back, much harder. Marco let out another laugh to cover the wheeze-cough mix he let out.

The two eventually split off after walking around for a while, Eren heading for business class, which Marco wasn’t entirely sure why Eren was taking in the first place, and Marco headed off to history. History was another class he remembered that he’d be sharing with Armin, which he was both thankful for and somewhat dreading. Armin was pretty into history, at least of their area in the world. His parents, like Marco’s, weren’t alive anymore, and although Marco’s had died in an accident, Armin’s had died due to the government of the country near them, Marley. Armin’s mom and dad tried traveling to Marley to smuggle his aunt and her kids back to Paradis, but were killed by soldiers from Marley. Armin didn’t even know how far his parents made it, but gained a hatred for both the government and the military, even the ones in Paradis. In their government class in high school, Armin would sometimes go on rants about the issues in the government and military. While none of his friends disagreed with him, it just hurt to see Armin get so worked up and angry about it. So, Marco dreaded the thought of history, hoping that the class wouldn’t be too focused on solely their surrounding area.

Marco walked to class, wondering what kind of school year he’d be having. Things seemed a bit busy already, but it was the first day of school, so he had some hope things would calm down. Some.


	2. The Second Part of the First Day

Marco's feet carried him along as he thought to himself, thinking of his last two classes, what his next ones would be like, anything, really. He tended to think a lot. As Marco rounded the corner of the ‘delphinium building’, he saw Armin and Mikasa standing by the entrance. “Oh, Marco!” Armin said, “Another class together, and Mikasa’s got it, too.” Mikasa raised her hand slightly and waved it to the side in a greeting.

“So we’ve all got a class together without Eren, sounds fun.” Marco chuckled a little, and the three of them walked in. The first thing Marco noticed was the large maps and newspaper clippings on the walls, covering so much of them that they could easily be mistaken for wallpaper. Armin and Mikasa seemed to have the same look of ‘what the hell’ as they looked at the walls, too.

Mr. Smith smiled at them, waving them in. “Go ahead and take a seat wherever you’d like.” The three walked in further, and took note that, besides one kid near the back, they were the only ones there so far. They sat down in the front row, despite Mikasa’s silent hoping that they’d sit slightly further away from the front. Marco and Armin always sat in the very front, so Mikasa didn’t bother saying anything. 

“Marco, how was your last class? I had Ms. Ral, and she seemed happy to see me, but she just asked if you ended up here, too.” Armin laughed a little.

Marco closed his eyes, not wanting to roll them at him. “I’m sure she missed you, too. And, well, I was stuck with Eren, but it didn’t last very long. The teacher talked about school and about themself for a bit before letting us out, basically. The teacher’s nonbinary, actually, and said I’m probably their new favorite student.” 

“You’re everyone’s favorite student, Marco.” Mikasa joked, “As are you, Armin. You’re both teacher’s pets.” 

Armin huffed a little, tapping his hand on his bag a moment before pulling out a pencil. “And you’re always, well... Something. Marco, help me out.”

Marco snorted. “Mikasa’s always right.” Armin poked Marco with his pencil, then Mikasa. Sighing, Marco pulled out his phone to check the time. “We still have, like, 8 minutes until class starts.” As he finished, Armin and Mikasa both pulled out their phones to pass the time. 

After a little while Mr. Smith’s voice began speaking his greetings to students who walked in, although none of them were paying attention. Eventually, a different, somewhat familiar voice sounded “Oh, hey, you guys,” Marco looked up to see Jean’s face making the same sort of ‘what the hell’ expression at the room they all had earlier.

“Jean, hi.” Marco smiled slightly up at him, glancing down at his phone as he saw a new text pop up.

“Uh, can I sit with you guys?” Jean asked awkwardly, grabbing onto the one strap of his backpack that was actually on his shoulder.

Marco clicked the power button on his phone, but Armin spoke before he could. “I don’t see why not, sure.” Jean smiled quite awkwardly, his lips still mostly straight. He sat down beside Armin, setting his bag on the floor. “What’d you have last class, Jean?”

“Oh, I just had a break, not an actual class.”

Armin looked a little disappointed, “Ah, well, at least I know about one of my later teachers from Marco. I don’t really know any others.”

“Oh, right, Mikasa, who’d you have last?” Marco asked, moving his head from Jean and Armin to look at Mikasa. 

“Gym class, Mr. Zacharias. He’s a little weird but he just had us do dodgeball for the first day, so I don’t really care.” Mikasa seemed to stop and think of what she said for a moment. “Well, yet, at least. Who knows what sort of weird shit he might have us doing in class later.” The other three laughed quietly in response. Marco once again checked his phone, 3 minutes left. Time passed somewhat quickly, Marco just watching the slow stream of kids walk through the door. Eventually, two kids showed up at once just before the bell had rang, and Mr. Smith waved them off to the desks in front of him.

“Good morning class, I’m Mr. Smith, but I figure most of you remember me from the assembly this morning. I don’t see any returning faces, but I will get to know you all with time. I know it’s the first day, so we won’t be going into too much detail yet, but first I need you all to learn the rules of this classroom.” Mr. Smith’s voice stopped there, and he carefully watched the class. Nobody dared to groan or express any disapproval. He held out the papers to Jean, who happened to be in the front corner. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate it if you could pass these out, young man. Now, once you get your papers you will see first that they have the rules of this classroom. They are simple. No fighting or rude arguments, no phones out while I am speaking, and keep the room clean. Like I said, they should be simple.”

Jean walked around, looking extremely bored as he practically tossed the papers onto each person’s desk. Mr. Smith continued speaking, overlining how the rules played a part in class, and then starting to go over the basic parts of what they would be learning just as Jean sat back down, mumbling “This guy talks a lot.”

“The first part of our semester together, we will go over, briefly, the beginning of human history, then move on to the first people in Paradis, our conflicts, and then to more modern history.” Mr. Smith stated everything sharply, his eyes watching the class closely. Marco had to hold back from sighing, knowing Armin would get a little too into their class. Armin, beside him, was smiling, looking quite eager to start learning. “As you can see in your packets, this is all stated there clearly. I need you all to sign and agree to the rules, so if any of you start a fight or severely break the other two rules, you’ll be held responsible.”

The sound of pages flipping filled the classroom, and Marco pulled out a pen and signed the paper without looking at it, as did most of the others. Marco covered his mouth with the back of his hand as he yawned, looking at the last page where it listed what they’d be learning. Sure enough, there were things bound to get Armin riled up right there.

The rest of class went by, Mr. Smith going over the beginning of human history just as he said they would. Marco wasn’t expecting it to be taught on the first day. Mr. Smith noted to them that they would take a short, ungraded test over what they had learned today when they came back tomorrow, and he’d start figuring out where to teach them from there. It seemed that class moved by much quicker than his first two, as the bell already rang before Mr. Smith could finish his short rant about how the early Eldian people were ahead of their time. 

Kids began walking out as soon as they heard the bell. “Oh, finally.” Jean stretched his arms out, grunting. “Those chairs are incredibly uncomfortable.”

“Hellish, even.” Mikasa responded, picking up her pen and shoving it into her backpack. “Are you and Connie going to join us all for lunch? Sasha said she didn’t know what you two were doing.”

Armin looked over at Marco, curious, before looking back at Mikasa and Jean. “She’s joining us for lunch?”

“I hadn’t asked you two, sorry, but Eren said it would be fine, and I didn’t think either of you would have issues.” Mikasa pressed her lips together in a thin line, watching their response.

“I think we’re fine, Marco?” Armin asked, and Marco’s soft ‘mm-hm’ gave him the answer he needed. “Yeah, we can all have lunch together.”

“That’s good, I have a feeling Sasha would complain if she couldn’t spend lunch with me.” Mikasa chuckled, her thumb rubbing her jacket sleeve. “So, Jean?”

Jean’s head tilted to the side before he seemed to realize what he was being asked. “Oh, right, well, I don’t think Connie’s said anything, actually. I’ll text him.”

“Sounds good, we can walk to where we all met this morning, I told Sasha and Eren we would meet there.” Mikasa began walking, and the rest of them followed.

Jean’s hands moved quickly as he typed, sending a message to Connie and then turning it off, phone held tight in his hand. The group walked around to find the cafeteria’s outdoor seating again, getting a little confused by having taken the wrong turn at some point, but eventually finding their way. Sasha was already there, sitting down at one of the tables, her phone in hand, earbuds in her ears. The four of them sat down by her, Mikasa sitting closest. Mikasa gently prodded Sasha’s arm with her hand, thinking she didn’t know they were there, but Sasha just patted her hand with her own. They sat there for a moment before Sasha pulled out her earbuds with a smile and a “Hey, guys.”

“What were you watching this time?” Jean asked nonchalantly, checking his phone once it buzzed. “Also, Connie said he’ll come. I’ll tell him we’re at, what, the cafeteria?”

“Just some video about how they make rice. And yeah, but it’s outside the cafeteria.” Sasha set down her phone and tapped her fingers on it.

Jean shook his head, “Well, I know that we’re outside. Just didn’t know if the cafeteria had one of those dumb names like the others do.”

“They’re named after flowers.” Marco added quietly, scratching at his arm idly. “The main class ones, at least. Aster, Begonia, Calendula, Delphinium, and Echinops.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Armin said, seeming interested but not sure what to add to the conversation. ‘At least he was trying’, Marco thought to himself. 

They sat there in an awkward silence for just a moment before Sasha’s head perked up. “Connie’s over there.” She pointed off to Connie, who was still pretty far away. Although Marco knew that Sasha and Connie knew each other for much longer, he couldn’t quite figure out how she could pick him out from that far away.

“Connie!” Jean yelled, waving him over. Connie jogged over, sitting down between Sasha and Jean once he reached them. “Why are you sweating so much already, are you that out of shape?”

Connie huffed, “Shut up, idiot, I had gym before this.”

“Mr. Zacharias?” Mikasa asked, pulling her water bottle out of her backpack and drinking from it, eyes still on Connie.

“Yeah.”

“We played dodgeball. You’re sweating that much from dodgeball?” Mikasa set her bottle down with an eye raised at Connie.

Connie sighed and rolled his eyes. “I kept hitting some kid in the face and Mr. Z made me run a few laps.” Sasha laughed at that, patting Connie’s back. “Some kid named Franz was being really lovey-dovey with his girlfriend, so I hit him in the face a few times. He threw back at me, but I was the only one to get in trouble. Had to run laps. Bullshit.”

Jean shrugged, leaning back a little before realizing there weren’t backs to the benches. “Well, maybe you should’ve just thrown a ball at the teacher.” Connie and Sasha both giggled at that.

“Oh right, Eren.” Mikasa said, Eren sitting down on the bench beside her suddenly. “Where have you been?”

“Business class. Sucked.” Eren folded his arms on the table and put his head down in them. “Man, mom woke us up way too early.”

“At 8am?” Mikasa shook her head and rolled her eyes with a small smile on her face. “Right, I forgot you’ve been doing nothing but playing video games all summer and falling asleep at, like, 5 in the morning.” Eren simply responded by moving himself just enough to flip his middle finger up at Mikasa.

Marco chuckled, watching the doors to the main cafeteria. Not too many people were going in or out. “Do we wanna try our luck with school food? It’s gotta be better than stuff at high school. I hope, at least. There’s not too many people in there.”

“Sounds okay.” Armin said, but Sasha was already up. “I think we are, then.” He said with a laugh, and the group all got up, slowly walking together to the cafeteria’s food court. Inside seemed a lot smaller than it looked from the outside, but it wasn’t too bad considering it looked huge from the outside to begin with. There were a few different ‘buildings’ inside of the cafeteria, almost like a food court. The names were quite plain, just labeled as the foods they were serving. Marco’s attention was brought to the pizza place, as Armin pointed it out to him. “We could try over there?” 

“Sure.” Marco replied, Armin already tugging him by the sleeve of his flannel. The others in their group followed behind, not sure where else to go.

The people running the stand looked like students, although probably older than them. One was lazily leaning against the register, the other digging around in a fridge just beyond the counter separating the cashier from the kitchen. “Hey, what d’ya guys want?”

Armin then realized he never asked anyone else what they wanted. “Uh, give us a second, sorry.” He stepped back, smiling a bit awkwardly. “Cheese sound okay?”

“If we can get two, yes.” Sasha said with a grin, glancing around at everyone else, who didn’t really seem to mind.

“Sounds good, then!” Armin eagerly stepped back over, but the cashier just stared at the register.

“Ten dollars.” They stated, and Armin looked confused. The cashier sighed. “Two cheeses?”

“Oh, yeah, here.” Armin dug around in his pocket for his wallet without much luck, then grabbed his backpack, but Jean stepped forward with his own in hand.

“I’ve got it.” Jean swiped his card, tapped his pin in the keypad, and then hastily shoved his card back into his wallet, then his wallet into his pocket. The cashier nodded and turned around, talking to the cook.

Sasha snorted. “Rich boy Jean here to the rescue.”

Armin looked embarrassed as he looked into his backpack, eventually finding his wallet. “Sorry, Jean, I can-”

“It’s fine, it’s not like I need it.” Jean shrugged a little, and began starting to look a little embarrassed himself. “Not that I mean you do, just that I don’t is all.”

Eren gave Mikasa and Marco a look, mumbling “Get a load of this guy.”

The cashier cleared their throat, holding out the pizzas. “Here.” Armin grabbed them with a smile and they all walked back outside to their table from earlier. 

“Seems like the cafeteria is usually kinda empty.” Connie noted. Marco thought back on it, not remembering seeing very many people. None at the pizza spot, at least. “Wonder if these are even any good, then.”

Sasha smiled a bit as she spoke, “I’ll take ‘em if you guys don’t want to eat it all.” Connie and Mikasa both chuckled, Jean elbowing her gently. They sat down, opening up the first box. The pizza didn’t look too bad, but it also looked like a frozen pizza you could get at a grocery store. Marco wasn’t sure how he felt about the pizza. Everyone was grabbing a slice, Sasha being the first to do so. She made a show of pulling the pizza away from her mouth slowly and letting the cheese stretch out between her mouth and the rest of the pizza slice. The cheese ended up pulling off from the pizza entirely and falling onto the table. Connie started laughing, shaking Sasha’s shoulder. “It’s not bad.”

“Well, it’d probably be better if you didn’t drop the cheese.” Connie took a bite out of his own slice, shrugging.

Sasha picked up the fallen cheese, putting it in her mouth and eating it as if it wasn’t just on the table that probably hadn’t been washed in years. Eren looked almost amazed. “Y’know what, Mikasa, you’ve found a keeper. Sasha, would you eat a grasshopper?”

Sasha looked confused. “I don’t think they would taste good, why would I eat one?”

“It’s supposed to be a bet.” Jean said, covering his mouth as he spoke, thankfully not speaking with his mouth full. “You’re not supposed to like it.”

Eren grinned at Sasha, his smile full of idiocy. “Just like that. Hey, Jean? Would you eat a grasshopper?” Both Marco and Mikasa rolled their eyes.

“How about you eat one? Shut up.” Jean looked annoyed. Marco looked at the slice in his hand, not sure if even wanted to eat it, but decided to take a bite, anyway. It wasn’t awful, but not something he really wanted to eat, either. He didn’t want to waste it so he ate it slowly and reluctantly. Their conversations were quiet, Connie and Jean talking between themselves, Mikasa and Sasha doing the same. Eren, Armin and Marco all ate in silence, looking on their phones.

Armin noticed Marco’s disinterested chewing and leaned in more, whispering. “Not liking it?” Marco sighed and shook his head, Armin grabbing the pizza from Marco without any further words and eating it himself. Despite the fears Marco worked hard to get rid of, there was something about food he couldn’t deal with yet. His family and friends all knew he was a picky eater, but his family, the adults at least, were mostly on the side of forcing him to eat things he didn’t like anyway. So he was grateful for Armin’s subtlety and not making any sort of show for their new friends to say anything about. 

Suddenly Eren stood up, bumping the table. “We’re gonna be late for our next classes.”

All at once, they checked the time. “Eren, it’s only twelve thirty-four, did you read it backwards?” Armin asked, everyone setting down their phones and watching Eren. “Besides, class doesn’t start as soon as lunch ends, anyway.”

“Oh.” Was all Eren said, sitting down again, grabbing another slice of pizza. “Right.”

Eventually, the time passed enough to where they actually did need to leave for class. As they looked over each other’s schedules, checking to see if any of them had their next class together. Marco’s next class was empty, a break period. “Anyone else have a break next period?” He asked, folding up his paper and putting it back in his pocket.

“Don’t think so, but wanna come with me to gym? I’ve got a fucked up ankle and a doctor’s note.” Eren looked proud of himself as he said that.

Marco almost laughed, nodding. “Sure, not like I have anything else to do. And you’re sure your ankle is still messed up? It’s been, what, two weeks?”

Eren flicked Marco’s arm. “Doc said up to 4 weeks, so fuck off, Bodt.”

“I’ve got gym too, Eren, with Mr. Zacharias?” Sasha looked at the two of them as Eren nodded his head. “Should we all walk together?”

“Sounds fine.” Marco answered for the both of them, smiling. Eren would have said yes, but Marco answering for him made him groan. They all walked off to the east gym. When they entered the hallway, Eren walked off to the men’s locker room to go talk to the teacher, leaving Marco and Sasha by themselves. Sasha awkwardly looked around. “I think the women’s is kinda the same way Eren went.” Marco stated, but his words almost sounded like a question.

“Oh, thanks.” Sasha sighed. “Mikasa told me you and Armin are both trans, is that right?”

Marco bit his lip, not quite understanding. “Well, yeah.”

“Well, I don’t think she told you I’m trans too, then. I also don’t think I should use the women’s locker room, it was bad enough in high school, and they had curtained off areas to change in.” Sasha spoke with a soft sadness in her voice that Marco unfortunately knew. “Have you happened to have seen like, a unisex bathroom or something?”

Marco sighed and shook his head, thinking. “Wait, come with me.” He grabbed Sasha’s hand without much thought, walking over to the bathrooms just outside of the hallways beside the gym floor. “Here, I think you can just change in one of the stalls if you have to.”

Sasha looked grateful despite the not-so-great situation of changing in a cramped bathroom stall. “Wanna wait outside for me?” Marco’s nod gave her the confirmation to head on in and get changed. Marco leaned against the wall outside of the bathrooms, playing with his fingers. Eren ended up walking out from the locker rooms leading to the gym without anyone else, walking to a bench before noticing Marco outside the bathrooms and hurrying over.

“Hey, the hell are you doing?” Eren asked, glancing at the women’s restroom sign. “Last I heard you were a cock-whore.” 

Marco snorted, covering his mouth with his hand. “Eren, you’re an idiot. But uh, the biology professor isn’t the only other new trans person you know, now.” Almost as if on cue, Sasha came out of the bathroom, smiling at Eren.

“Christ, Marco, you’re just a magnet for the LGBT.” Eren joked, shaking his head.

Marco shrugged with a smirk, “Maybe you’ll realize you’re one of us someday.” Eren made a noise that sounded like he choked.

Sasha looked at the two with interest. “You mean to tell me this little thing isn’t a raging homosexual?” Eren’s mouth opened in protest but Sasha and Marco just laughed.

“I hate you, Marco. And you’re on thin ice, Sasha.” Eren stuck two fingers up near his eyes, then pointed them at his two friends in front of him. Sasha rolled her eyes and nodded her head behind Eren to shift their attention to the students starting to walk out of the locker rooms on the other side of the gym. Eren started walking back over to the bench, not looking back as he spoke, “You guys coming?”

They all walked over to the other side, Sasha splitting up from the other two to join the crowd around Mr. Zacharias, and Eren and Marco sitting down at a bench close to the locker rooms. Marco sighed, watching everyone as they were being told by the teacher that they got to play dodgeball. “Y’know, I almost wish I took gym, some of the guys are hot.” Marco sighed, only partly to annoy Eren.

“Like Reiner?” Eren pointed discreetly, and sure enough Reiner was over in the crowd as they began splitting into two teams. “Don’t tell me you still like him.”

“No, Eren.” Marco wasn’t sure what to say in retort. “The tall kid is kinda cute.”

“Him?” Eren pointed over at a lanky kid with dark brown hair. Marco nodded, and Eren continued. “He’s sweating already, and looks like a huge nerd. Dude, he looks so out of place and awkward. I bet he’ll get out first.”

Marco rolled his eyes. “You’re just shit-talking him because I said he’s cute.”

Eren didn’t say anything to deny it, instead just watching the others play dodgeball. “I kinda wanna join them, but I’d end up fucking up my ankle further.”

“So your ankle really is still hurt?” After a moment, Marco realized Eren wasn’t going to respond at all. Marco watched as everyone ran around, throwing balls at each other. Sure enough, the kid Marco noted as cute got out first. Eren didn’t do much other than chuckle and elbow him. The class didn’t take forever, but got a little boring just sitting off to the side on a bench. Eventually Mr. Zacharias whistled and yelled at everyone that they were done, the kids filing back into the locker rooms. Sasha walked past Eren and Marco, waving before heading off to the bathroom stalls. “Hey, Eren?”

Eren looked over, letting out a disinterested “Hm?” in response.

“Besides being rude, whatcha think of Jean and Connie?” Marco wanted Eren’s opinion mostly on Jean, but asking about the both of them was much less suspicious. Although, Marco thought, Eren was a bit daft sometimes, and probably wouldn’t even figure it out if he only asked about Jean. He stood up and looked at Eren.

Eren shrugged, standing up next to him. “Connie seems kinda weird, but not bad. Kind of a class clown type kid, I think. And Jean just seems like a rich asshole.”

“Have you had any classes with the rich asshole or are you just mad he paid for our food instead of Armin?” Marco began walking out to the bathrooms where Sasha was. 

“None yet, but still, I’m betting he’s a bigger dumbass in class.” Eren walked with Marco, crossing his arms. “And I’m not mad about that.”

Marco let out an ‘mm-hm’ just before they reached the bathrooms, Sasha coming out just as they got there. They all looked at their schedules together, none of them having a class with each other the next period, but Eren and Marco’s next classes were in the same building, this one being called ‘calendula’, so they walked off together. As they walked, Marco felt a little bored, as Eren was being quieter than usual. “Hey, Eren, why do you think they’re using flower names for all the buildings here?”

Eren glanced over at Marco, giving him a look that made Marco feel like he was trying to call him an idiot, “Dude, the school’s called ‘Rose Community College’.”

“Oh.” Marco now felt like an idiot. “Well, I suppose that makes sense. Wonder why they chose a flower theme, though.” Eren shrugged in response. They ended up at the calendula building shortly after, both splitting ways to find their classes. Marco’s class was near the end of the hall, and he slipped into class quietly. The inside of the room was bright, there were bigger windows than most classes had on the furthest wall from the doorway, and inside of a storage room connected to the class, there were windows there as well. The main windows had wires just above and across them, paintings and a few other art pieces hanging off of them by clothespins. The room was painted a light green, making the room seem even brighter. Usually Marco wouldn’t describe a classroom as beautiful, but that’s what he thought of it.

“Hello! I’m Ms. Nanaba, feel free to take a seat wherever you’d like! Class starts in about,” She looked down at her watch and then back up to Marco, “11 minutes, so if you’d like to wander around a bit you can do that as well.”

“Oh, thank you.” Marco said, looking down at the tables and choosing one close enough to the front where he thought he’d be able to see well. He sat and looked around the room for a while, just admiring how well kept and nice it looked, when he was startled by a bag slamming down across the table and the chair screeching as it moved

He turned to look across from him and saw a girl with light wavy hair grinning at him. “Hey, I’m Hitch.” She moved just her wrist to lift up her hand in a half wave.

“I’m Marco.” He replied, glancing around at the other students in their seats. He pulled out his phone quickly to check the time, about 6 minutes left before class was to start. He sat there awkwardly, very thankful when a familiar face sat beside him. “Oh, Armin, hi.”

Armin smiled in response, looking a bit disheveled. Marco opened his mouth to speak but Armin seemed to have read his mind, responding with “My last class was practically across campus. The buildings are all in kinda confusing places. The delphinium building is near the front of campus by the parking lot, and this one’s at the back.”

Marco nodded in understanding. “What did you have across campus, then?”

“Psychology.” Armin looked through his backpack, pulling out a pencil. “I almost wish lunch was after fourth period so I didn’t have to walk from there and back during lunch.”

“Sucks.” Hitch stated from across the table, arms folded and on the table. “Don’t think I have any classes that far away.”

Armin pressed his lips together, brows furrowed in confusion. “You are?”

“Hitch Dreyse. Sorry, only introduced myself to your friend here.” She lifted up an arm and scratched at the back of her head.

“Like, the actual Dreyse family? Or is that a coincidence?” Armin asked quietly, looking even more confused, but also interested.

Hitch laughed a little. “Yeah, yeah, rich family Dreyse. Dad’s a CEO of some big company. Only good thing about being rich is we get to throw a lot of parties.”

“Oh, so you’re the sister of that Dylan kid who’s always having college parties?” Marco asked, only now realizing the connection between the Dreyse company and the last name ‘Dreyse’.

“Yeah, and since I’m now in college, my bro’s letting me actually be at the parties. Used to make me go to a friend’s house, but still gave us the alcohol to drink there.” Hitch smiled as she spoke. “I’m planning on throwing a party as soon as I can, gotta work up my reputation, first, though. Dylan’s still out on vacation or something, so I’ll either have to wait a month or throw one now.”

Marco and Armin both nodded, now seeing why she was being overly friendly. Ms. Nanaba’s voice brought their attention away from Hitch and to the front of the room as she talked, “Good afternoon, class. I’m Ms. Nanaba, as some of you may know, and I’m the general arts teacher here. Unfortunately, teachers are required to hand out a syllabus of sorts, so I’ll do that now.” She walked around, setting down the papers as she continued speaking. “It’s just a short overview of what we’ll be doing in class. There’s nothing to sign or worry about. There’s also a worksheet attached, a silly little get-to-know-me page that I’d appreciate if you guys would fill out for me.”

As Marco got his paper, he flipped the page to look at the aforementioned sheet. On it, it had a little rectangle to draw yourself in and a few basic questions asking for your name, birthday, age, favorite artist, and favorite type of art medium. ‘Easy enough’, Marco thought. He started with the bottom question, writing ‘pencil’. He looked at the paper for a moment before he tapped on the table lightly to get Armin’s attention. “Do you know of any artists?” He asked, smiling.

“Like Van Gogh? Or Keith Haring? Or Frida Kahlo? What type of artist?” Armin asked, already doodling a picture of himself on his sheet.

“Dunno, I’ll just put Haring.” Marco wrote down ‘Keith Haring’, not wanting Armin to go too deep into finding an artist’s name for the silly get-to-know-you assignment. Age, birthday and name were easy, but he figured the first two the teacher could find on her computer. Eventually he got to the self portrait drawing and began lazily drawing himself as he spoke with Armin, and every once in a while Hitch chimed in with her thoughts. Class dragged on after they finished, which didn’t take too long. They kept chatting, Marco looking around the room at the other students. He noticed the kid he called cute earlier from Eren and Sasha’s gym class, sitting with a blonde-haired girl and a quiet brunette who was reading. He didn’t recognize anyone else, and didn’t know the cute guy from earlier at all, so he just stayed at his own table and let class run its course until the bell rang.


	3. The End of the First Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed or quick or whatever, and sorry about the semi long wait if you're reading this as it's published. But anyway, I hope y'all enjoy!

Marco thought Mr. Ackerman’s home ec class was pretty lame. Of course, it was the first day, but something about the teacher’s voice being so to the point and the kids in there weren’t very interesting. His old friend, his ex, actually, Reiner was in there, but under Mr. Ackerman’s sharp eyes, everyone was a little nervous to speak, despite him saying they could talk quietly. The class consisted of a short explanation of the class and then a dismissal to talk amongst themselves, as he said he “didn’t want anyone getting used to leaving before class ends.”

It felt like a while but eventually that class ended, and Marco was on his way to math with his favorite teacher from high school. The echinops building where Ms. Ral’s class was was closer to his last class than the other buildings, which he was thankful for. Additionally, it just so happened that his last class in the calendula building was between the east gym and his next class. So, as Marco walked to his next class, he bumped into Jean after a short while.

“Marco?” A voice asked from behind, and he turned to see Jean a short distance behind him. Marco responded with an awkward wave, and Jean sped up a bit to meet up with him. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Marco smiled a little, pulling out the papers he had in his pocket with his schedule. Last period, Mr. Ackerman told a student he had no excuse to be late due to not being able to find his class, as there was a map of the school in the papers that came with the schedules. It was a ‘duh’ moment for Marco, and as he unfolded the map, it seemed it wasn’t common knowledge.

“Where’d you get the map?” Jean asked, looking over at the paper.

“You’d never guess, but it was in the schedule packet. Somewhere way in the middle among a bunch of the paperwork-like stuff.” Marco looked up ahead of him, pointing. “Pretty sure if we just keep going straight I’ll be at my next class. Where’s yours?”

“Uh,” Jean pulled out his schedule. Marco thought to himself for a moment about how dumb it was to just start walking without knowing what class you’re headed to, but he didn’t say anything. “Echinops? Ms. Ral.”

Marco made a face to himself. “Really? Well then we’re headed to the same class.”

“Three classes together, that’s like, almost half.”

“Yeah.” Marco just nodded. “I had three with Armin, too, though. Apparently it’s not too uncommon.” 

Jean nodded next, putting his hands into his jacket pockets. “Dunno if I have that many classes with anyone else, I only know I do with you because I somewhat know you.”

“I’m probably the same, I just know I have the three with Armin and with you.” They walked in a mostly comfortable silence together to their class, and once they got there, were immediately greeted by Ms. Ral.

“Oh, Marco!” Ms. Ral walked over quickly and smiled, hugging him loosely from the side. “I’m glad to have you in class again.”

Marco smiled back, “Yeah, me too. There’s a lot of teachers here, and I don’t really know any of them.” He chuckled a bit nervously, watching as Jean stood there looking awkward. “I’m gonna put my things down.”

“Go ahead, I think kids might get scared if they think I hug everyone when they come in.” Ms. Ral hummed a bit, returning to her desk.

“Know her?” Jean asked quietly, following Marco the short way to the seats in the front.

“I’m surprised you asked, but yeah, I think it’s a little obvious.” Marco sat front in center.

Jean rolled his eyes, sitting down at the desk beside him. “Well, I meant it more in a ‘how did you know her’ way than a ‘I’m a complete dumbass’ way, dumbass.”

Marco snorted, a small smile on his face. “I had her in high school, two years in a row. She was my favorite, really nice.”

“Oh, I think I remember Armin mentioning that earlier, actually.” He shrugged a little, putting his arms folded on his desk.

The class slowly filled up, eventually the bell ringing bringing everyone to their seats and hushing them. “Good afternoon everyone, I’ll be teaching you guys math this semester.” She smiled over the class for a moment before she resumed. “We’ll do some short introductions, and then I’ll pass out a short packet of what we’ll be doing in class, which you guys can read whenever you’d like, and finally I’ll also be passing out a short quiz.”

“Oh geez.” Jean said right away, sighing.

Ms. Ral looked down at Jean, the happiness on her face remaining despite that. “It won’t be graded, I just want to know how much you all remember from high school. Now, for our introductions, I just want you to tell me your names, pronouns, and if you like math or not. It’s okay to be honest. Alright, I’ll start off, I’m Ms. Ral, I use she, and I love math, but I’m sure you could have guessed by the fact that I’m teaching it. Now, let’s go from right to left, then back left to right, and keep going, hm?”

The class went around with their introductions, everyone sounding a bit awkward. Only three people, Marco included, said they liked math, most people saying they didn’t care, and a few even saying they hated math. After those were finished, Ms. Ral passed out the quizzes, which were mostly basic problems. Nothing super easy like plain addition, but stuff like ratios and percentages, working up slowly to stuff like geometry and calculus. Marco knew most of it, but he was a bit slow at working out the problems near the end, even the problems that he did know how to do. That class seemed to end quite quickly, as he was working the whole time, but the bell rang in the middle of his solving. Ms. Ral began collecting papers as everyone walked out, smiling and telling everyone to have nice days.

“That was long.” Jean stated, following Marco out the door.

“You thought so?” Marco responded, holding onto the straps of his backpack. “I thought it went by pretty quickly.”

Jean huffed air out his nose in a laugh. “Alright, nerd.” He pulled out his phone, and so Marco did the same, realizing he never made plans on where to meet up after school. Marco quickly sent a text to the group chat he had with Armin, Eren, and Mikasa, asking if they should all meet where they did before school. It was agreed that it sounded like a plan, and so put his phone away, looking over at Jean, who was just watching Marco. He opened his mouth for a moment before speaking, “Oh, sorry, uh, Connie and Sasha are headed home by themselves, too tired or something. I was wondering if you would wanna walk to the parking lot together.”

“Sure, if you don’t mind coming to the cafeteria first and also walking with my friends. I don’t think they’d mind.” Marco watched as Jean nodded before he began walking off to the spot out in the cafeteria’s outside seating. It wasn’t too far from the echinops building, and they ended up waiting there for only a few minutes before Armin came up.

“Hey, Marco, Jean.” Armin looked at Marco, silently questioning him. 

“Hey, uh, Jean just wanted to walk with us to the parking lot, I thought it’d be okay.” Marco responded, rubbing his hands up and down his backpack straps.

Armin nodded, turning a little to wave at Mikasa as she came over. “I’m sure that’s fine, it is with me, anyway.”

Mikasa glanced at Jean before looking at Marco. “Eren told me he’d be just a little late, something about him and Connie feeding ducks?”

“Oh.” Marco laughed a little, not sure what to think. Soon enough, though, Eren showed up.

“What’s he doing here?” He asked, not bothering to look at Jean. 

“Walking with us to the parking lot.” Armin stated calmly, patting Eren’s shoulder. “Not going to be a problem, right?”

Eren scoffed, lightly pushing away Armin’s hand. “Right.” They all walked off, following the odd sidewalk path around the buildings to the parking lot. Eventually, Eren asked, “Marco, is your grandma picking us up?”

“I’d hope so considering your mom obviously isn’t,” Marco joked, “but yeah, Armin’s coming over to my house, so Grandma’s driving.”

“Can we come over?” Eren asked, before looking over at Mikasa.

Mikasa huffed out a breathy laugh. “Yeah I wouldn’t mind coming over. Up to Marco.”

“Sure, but you know you’ll have to deal with my siblings, right?” Marco said, almost wishing he’d said no now. His siblings were nice and he of course loved them, but they got quite rowdy sometimes.

The parking lot was just in sight, and Jean awkwardly spoke up, “Uh, think my car’s just over there a ways, I’ll see you guys tomorrow?”

Marco looked over at him, trying to convey an apology on his face for somewhat ignoring him. “Yeah, we’ll see you tomorrow, Jean.” He waved him goodbye, and they walked over towards the street running along the long side of the parking lot, University Road. ‘Blandly named’, Marco thought.

His grandma’s van was already there, and the four of them got inside. “So, kids, how was your first day?” She asked sweetly, smiling at them through the rearview mirror. 

“Tiring.” Eren said quickly, buckling himself in and leaning back in his seat. “Got into an argument in my photography class, the guy says I’m annoying and pretentious for knowing so much about cameras and then I yelled at him.”

“Eren, you know she knows our mom, right? You really wanna tell mom you nearly got in a fight the first day?” Mikasa asked, not even looking at him.

Marco’s grandma just laughed and grinned. “Oh, you haven’t changed at all over the summer. Your hair is a bit longer but you’re still the same hothead I’ve always known.”

Marco just giggled in the back seat next to Armin. His grandma wasn’t one to keep from speaking her mind, even if it was a bit rude. Eren always told Marco that reminded him of the other. Marco didn’t really want to hear it, of course. Armin nudged Marco gently, shaking his head.

“Right, whatever. Oh, Mrs. Bodt, can we all come over? Marco said it’s okay.” Eren asked just as the car started pulling out onto the street.

“Sure, just mind the kids, alright? I don’t want Antonio or Camilla complaining about you lot. They complain enough as is.”

They drove for a short while, soon reaching Marco’s house. Maria rushed out the front door upon hearing the car drive up, waving both of her hands at them. “Marky!” She yelled, running to the van’s door next.

“Hey, Maria.” Mikasa said to her, patting her head, being sure not to mess up her hair. Maria grinned wide.

Eren huffed, climbing out of the same door Mikasa came from, not leaving out the door on his side despite not being on a busy street. Armin and Marco waited for Eren to leave before pushing down the seat in front of Marco, allowing them to get out of the back. Again, Maria yelled “Marky!” and jumped at Marco to hug him. Eren laughed, crossing his arms.

“If only I had a sister who cared about me that much.” Eren’s comment was met with a hard elbowing and a side eyed glare from Mikasa.

Maria let go of Marco, pulling him by the hand inside, and everyone followed. Once inside, it was surprisingly quiet, Leon sleeping on the couch with his work clothes on, Camilla sitting in a chair by the TV, and Antonio nowhere to be seen, most likely in his room. The group all walked upstairs, Marco still being dragged by Maria, and went into Marco’s room. Eren made himself at home by flopping onto Marco’s bed first thing. Marco sat on the bed as well, thankfully it was big enough to still have room even with Eren laying on one side, and Maria sat in his lap. Armin and Mikasa both sat in chairs, Armin with his legs pulled up onto the seat, Mikasa sitting backwards in the chair.

“So, Marco, did you see anyone cute?” Maria jumped straight to the point, which made everyone laugh a bit.

“Yeah, Marco, did ya get the chance to make a move on that awkward kid from my class?” Eren laughed more as he spoke. 

Marco lifted Maria out of his lap just enough to move his leg and kick Eren’s side. “No, idiot. I had class with him after, but that’s about it.”

“Wouldn’t that have been our art class together, after Eren and you went to his gym class?” Armin asked, tilting his head a bit.

“Yeah, he sat near the back somewhere. Wasn’t paying too much attention.” Marco said with a yawn, and Maria gave him a face. “What?”

“Just one?”

Eren laughed again, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve always liked Maria, you can’t say no to her and say the most embarrassing shit.”

“Eren, she’s 9, watch your mouth a little. But, he’s not wrong. You do say a lot around her.” Mikasa mused.

Marco shook his head a bit. “At least she doesn’t say rude things to me about who I like. And I’d say there’s another, but like I just said, Eren would be rude.”

Eren sat up, looking at Marco. “That must mean it’s someone I know, right? Okay, okay, Connie or Jean?”

Marco opened his mouth to speak, but everyone else but Maria laughed. Maria just pouted her lip, sad she didn’t know who any of the people they were talking about were. Marco sighed. “How about you talk about your almost-fight in photography and how you definitely didn’t lose the argument by being even more pretentious.”

“Marco.” Armin said softly, watching the three on the bed. 

“Marco, you’re a big asshole sometimes, y’know that?” Eren chuckled.

Mikasa pursed her lips. “Eren, there’s a kid."

“Marco says ‘fuck’ a lot.” Maria said, completely serious, which made Armin and Mikasa both laugh a little. “Really!”

“I believe you, I just think it’s funny your brother would do that.” Armin replied, grabbing one of the pencils on Marco’s desk and spinning it around with his finger. 

Eren groaned, flopping back onto the bed. “Just tell me it’s not Jean.”

Marco wasn’t sure what to say, as no matter what Eren would think something. He decided to just ask, “And if it is?” Eren rolled his head to look at Marco with an eyebrow raised.

“Really? Him? He had a fucking horse face. And  _ he’s  _ the kid who called me annoying and pretentious.” 

“Good for him.” Marco joked, and Eren sat up again. Marco sighed. “Eren, come on, you get into arguments with people a lot.”

“Yeah, well, whatever. Least I don’t have the hots for anyone.” Eren yawned, moving his hands behind his head.

“It’s not like I know either of them, I just think they’re cute.” Marco said, noticing Armin’s bored fidgeting with a pencil. “You guys wanna do something other than whatever this is?”

“You just admitted it is Jean, but yes.” Eren sat up once more, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and getting up. Marco groaned at the realization that he did inadvertently admit it was Jean. Eren walked over to Marco’s TV and tapped the screen. “Movie? Games?”

“I’m fine with either, but I think I’d like to play a game more than watch a movie.” Armin said, letting go of the pencil.

“Hey, Maria, do you wanna go off to your room or go downstairs? We only have four controllers.” Marco patted her back with a smile.

Maria scrunched up her face. “Fine, I was getting bored, anyway.” She got out of Marco’s lap and walked out, pausing for a moment to stick her tongue out at them before leaving for good.   


The four of them moved some things around, putting pillows on the floor and against the wall to make sitting on the floor more comfortable. They played a few different games, arguing jokingly about how they all sucked and were better than each other, every once in a while making comments about their classes that they remembered. Time passed until they realized about an hour had gone by when Marco’s grandma called everyone downstairs to have dinner. “Dinner’s ready, guys!” She yelled out, banging a pan against the wall to get their attention.

“Don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.” Mikasa joked, and they all headed down to eat. 

Everyone except Leon ended up around the table, who was laying half-asleep on the couch. Their grandma set down a large plate of chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs onto the table and walked back into the kitchen to grab a few more things. Eren grabbed one of the nuggets immediately, eating it. “Jesus, I haven’t had these in forever.”

“Me either,” Armin said, wincing a little at Eren talking with his mouth full. “Perks of living with kids, huh, Marco?”

“He’s one of the kids.” Camilla pointed out, typing something into her phone while she spoke.

Grandma Bodt set down a few cups and condiment bottles on the table, “Oh, you don’t seem to mind, though, darling. You’re eating them too.”

Camilla rolled her eyes. They all ate, talking quietly in between. “So, Maria, how was school?” Marco asked.

“It was okay. Mr. Lauda has funny hair.” Maria shoved another nugget into her mouth as soon as she finished speaking.

Marco chuckled. “How about you, Antonio?”

Antonio shrugged, “It’s school.” 

Eren laughed, leaning back in his chair. “Oh, I know how that feels.”

Before Marco could ask, Camilla spoke. “Yeah, same, school’s just school.” She got up, staring at the phone in her hand. “I’m going to my room.”

“Did you get enough to eat?” Their grandma asked, and Camilla nodded as she walked off.

“Teenagers.” Mikasa joked, grabbing one last nugget. Suddenly her phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket with a sigh, answering, “Hi mom.” Marco couldn’t quite tell what was being said on the other side, but she finished with a “Yeah, we’re eating but I think we’re done.”

Eren tilted his chair forward and looked at Mikasa. “Mom want us home?”

Mikasa nodded, “Thanks, bye.” She hung up the phone and rubbed her temples.

After a moment, “Oh, Armin, sweetheart, will you need a ride home?” Grandma Bodt asked as she stood up and took the empty plate off the table.

“Probably, but my grandpa should be home and could come get me if you’re too tired.” Armin said with a yawn.   


“Oh, I’m fine.” She responded, “It seems like you’re too tired.”

Marco and Mikasa both chuckled a little. Marco’s siblings both left after a few moments and his grandma left to clean, leaving the four college students at the table alone. Eventually, Eren broke the relative silence, "Think mom's here."

They all listened to the quiet noise of the car pulling into the driveway. "That was quick." Mikasa said, getting out of her chair. Eren nodded in response, and got up himself. "We'll see you two tomorrow." 

"Yeah, see you guys." Eren added, waving a little at Armin and Marco before leaving with Mikasa.

Armin sighed, looking over at Marco. "Today was a long day."

Marco snorted. "Yeah, really. Hopefully the next few days will be quieter, or at least not as busy."

Armin hummed an 'mm-hm' in agreement. They sat in relative silence for just a moment before Marco's grandma came back to the dining room. 

"Armin, honey, are you ready to go home?" 

"I think so." Armin turned to look at Marco, who shrugged, and then back. "Yeah."

Marco stayed behind at home, heading up to his room and cleaning up what was left on the floor from their gaming, the controllers, the pillows. After finishing that, he flopped onto his bed, crawling a bit to get under his blankets. He stared up at the ceiling for a while, thinking to himself. He wasn’t exactly sure how he’d like college, but it seemed normal enough for now, and he was glad his siblings were doing alright. His eyes closed, his mind running along with thoughts of classes and the parties like Hitch mentioned. He’d never been to a college party, of course, but he also didn’t know what they were actually like in the slightest. From TV, he saw lots of alcohol and loud music until the cops showed up, but according to Eren’s brother Zeke they never had cops show up to any of the parties. Perhaps it was because the Dreyse family was rich and paid off the cops, or perhaps college parties weren’t nearly as wild as TV made them out to be. Marco’s mind kept running along, thoughts of what his first party might be like, what his friends would be like drunk. His mind kept running along and along until he couldn’t focus and drifted off to sleep.


	4. Starting to Get in the Groove of Things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for such a long wait if you're reading this at the time of publication, but thank you for sticking around and reading!

Although the first day of school is usually pretty eventful, usually the next few days aren’t as much. Prof. Hange ended up remembering everyone’s names, so Marco’s class didn’t end up getting any special treats, and all of the other classes went on normally, nothing too interesting. Art class is where Marco’s interest was, waiting to ask Hitch if she just so happened to see if she gathered enough people for a party in a day.

“You really think I’d gain enough popularity in one school day? Well, I’m honored, honey, but no.” Hitch sat her head on her hand, looking over as another student sat beside her. The bell hasn't rung yet, but nobody sat by her yesterday. Marco looked over, and upon realization it was the ‘cute kid’ from Eren’s gym class yesterday, he looked back to Hitch, not wanting to look him in the eyes. Hitch tilted her head to get a slightly better look at him, “Whatcha doing over here?”

“Oh, uh, am I not supposed to sit here?” He asked, although he looked nervous before even speaking.

“It’s alright, just wonderin’ why you switched up seats already.” Hitch replied.

“Well,” He chuckled nervously, “The girl who sat over there isn’t here today.”

“Oh, you like girls? Never woulda guessed.” Hitch kept a completely straight face as she said this, but that made the guy beside her stutter out something completely incomprehensible.

“I, uh, not just girls, but, oh, hell-” He covered his face in his hands, realizing what he’d said.

She laughed, “Don’t worry, bud, Marco over here’s pretty damn gay.”

“When did I tell you-”

“Holy shit, I was right.” Hitch laughed even more, covering her mouth.

Armin covered his mouth as well as he leaned towards Marco, “She guessed, you never said anything. Good job, you nut.” Marco elbowed Armin, scratching at his nose a bit and watching Hitch.

“Well, anyway, don’t worry too much, Marco, I’m not gonna say anything to anyone. Besides tall guy, here, at least. Sorry.” She looked up, raising her eyebrows. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Bertholdt.” He said, awkwardly pulling out the chair and sitting down. “Uh, Bertholdt Hoover.”

“Nice to meet you, Bertholdt.” Armin said, nodding his head towards him.

“Yeah, you guys as well….” Bertholdt scratched at the back of his neck.

“Oh! I’m Hitch, and you know Marco’s name,” Hitch pointed to him, and then to Armin, “and that’s Armin.” He raised his hand, awkwardly waving to Bertholdt.

“Ah, right, and, uh, you guys can call me Bert if you want, some people think Bertholdt’s kinda long.” Bertholdt, Bert, nodded his head a little bit after he spoke, as if confirming to himself what he had said.

“Alright, Bert, nice to meet you as well.” Marco said, forcing himself to look up at him, their eyes meeting, and then they both looked away, both from their own forms of nervousness. Even though Marco usually didn’t like looking into people’s eyes for too long, it was especially awkward for him to meet eyes with someone he found cute. He knew nothing about Bertholdt though, and found it a bit silly he was this nervous with him, although, getting to know someone withdrawn was usually a bit awkward. 

“Anyway,” Hitch started, rolling her eyes as the bell rang as she spoke. “Anyway, again, Marco, unless you’re secretly mister popular, I don’t think I know enough people for a party. We could just have a for-us party, but I know if my brother found out he’d just laugh at me.” She sighed, glancing up front to see if Ms. Nanaba was ready to start class or not yet.

“Yeah, I don’t really think so.” Marco chuckled, scratching at his nose again. “Just our friend group is four people, unless you count our friend Mikasa’s girlfriend and her friends, then we’re at seven.”

Armin nodded, tapping at his chin. “We kinda know some others, Reiner and Marlowe. I’m sure they know others, as well.”

“Marlowe? You really think he’s the party type?” Marco asked.

“Never pegged you as the party type, but here we are, Marco.” Armin joked, smiling softly. “Despite that, I’m sure we could get people either way.”

Hitch tapped her fingers on the table, seeming lost in thought. “Wait, you mean Marlowe, like, Fruedenberg?” Marco nodded slowly in response to her. “I know him. Dated him at one point before I realized I was a big ol’ lesbian. Anyway, maybe by this weekend we could at least have a small party with us. I won’t plan anything big, hm?” She chuckled, shrugging her shoulders.

“Sounds fine, will there be alcohol?” Marco asked, and Armin started laughing quietly beside him. “What?”

“Really, beer now, too?” Armin smiled. “You’re a new person, I swear.”

“What, Marco’s a stay-at-home nerd?” Hitch joked, only she believed it.

Marco groaned. “Just curious, I guess. Always sounded fun.”

“I’m sure you’ll be saying that only up until you get a hangover and are begging your body to stop throwing up.” Armin poked Marco’s shoulder.

Ms. Nanaba walked out from the back room and up to the front of the class, apologizing quickly, and starting class just as quick, making all the students scramble for their pencils.

* * *

Mr. Ackerman’s class was just about over, and everyone was itching to get up and out of their seats to head to their next classes. Reiner, behind Marco, had earbuds in and was tapping his hands on the table, humming as quietly as he could. Mr. Ackerman looked up at the clock suddenly, rolled his eyes, and stared straight at Reiner. The rest of the class went quiet, watching the two. Reiner seemed completely in his own world as he tapped his fingers, bobbing his head a bit now, too. Mr. Ackerman’s eyes flicked to the clock and back, and he cleared his throat before suddenly shouting “Braun!” 

Reiner practically fell backward as he jolted in his seat, and he opened his mouth to respond to the teacher, but the bell rang, and Mr. Ackerman shook his head at him and sat back at his desk. Reiner crossed his arms, prodding Marco’s leg with his foot. “What’s his problem?”

“Perhaps it’s because you were playing your own little concert for yourself.” Marco said, getting out of his seat and swinging his backpack over his shoulder. “You were pretty out of it.”

“I was paying attention.” He retorted, grabbing his own backpack.

Marco shook his head teasingly, patting his shoulder. “He was staring at you for like, a good minute, Reiner. He even waved at you.” 

“Really?”

“Not the waving part, but that proves you weren’t paying attention at all.” Marco snorted, walking out the door with Reiner. “What were you even doing?”

“Just listening to music, it wasn’t even that loud.” Reiner and Marco walked alongside each other for a while before Jean eventually caught up behind them, tapping on Marco’s shoulder. 

“Hey,” Jean said, looking at Reiner. “Who’s this?”

“Ah, Marco, you’ve made friends already, huh?” Reiner grabbed Marco’s shoulder, rubbing his knuckles against the top of Marco’s head, messing with his hair.

“Cut it out, weirdo.” Marco swatted away Reiner’s hand, grumbling.

Jean just looked at the two, attempting to figure out their relationship. “Is he like, your brother or cousin or something?”

Reiner laughed, letting go of Marco. “No, no, I’d sure hope not, he’s my ex.” Reiner smiled down at Marco, who just groaned and looked towards the ground. 

“Why the hell’re you being so annoying to him, then?” Jean asked, and Marco covered his mouth as he laughed out, snorting.

“Don’t like this one.” Reiner joked, elbowing Marco. “Well, I’m gonna head off to my next class, don’t get in trouble.” He waved behind him and he walked off.

Marco coughed a bit, trying to stop his laughing as quickly as he could. “Sorry, Jean, he’s a bit… well, he’s kinda weird sometimes, to say the least.”

“I can tell.” Jean laughed a bit, watching Marco. Marco glanced up at him, then away back to the sidewalk. “Wanna head to class?”

“Yeah.” They walked in relative silence, the conversations of people passing by filling the quiet air between them. Marco held onto the straps of his backpack, smiling to himself. He felt surprisingly alright, despite getting embarrassed by Reiner moments ago. He looked over to Jean, just appreciating him for a moment before remembering he forgot to ask Reiner if he’d be interested in a party this weekend. He sighed, and as Jean looked up to ask him what was wrong, their eyes met for a moment, and Jean looked away again. 

“You alright?” Jean asked, his eyes fixed on his shoes as he walked.

Marco nodded, “Yeah, I’m alright, just forgot to do something. Speaking of which, would you maybe wanna go to a party this weekend? It’ll be kinda small, but I think it could be fun.”

“Maybe, do Connie and Sasha know?” Jean looked up to Marco, who thankfully wasn’t watching him this time. 

“Don’t think so, unless Armin’s got a class with either of them and mentioned it, but I’m pretty sure he just had a break class.” Marco stated, pulling out his phone to text Reiner and ask him the same question he just asked Jean.

Jean nodded, putting his hands in his pockets. “Well, I think they would wanna go anyway, but I’ll go if they do.” 

Marco smiled over at Jean, “Wanna text and ask them, then?”

“Uh, sure,” He pulled out his own phone, pulled up their group text and started typing. “Where’s it at?”

“Dreyse mansion.” Marco said nonchalantly, and Jean raised an eyebrow. 

“Dreyse mansion?” 

“Yup.”

“Right.” Jean cleared his throat. “How’d you get that set up?”

“I know one of them. Hitch’s in my art class. She wanted to throw a party anyway, so why not have a small one for now?” Marco put his phone back into his pocket, opening the door to the echinops building for them. 

“I guess.” Jean half asked, a little confused still.

Marco shut the door behind them. “Apparently her brother never really let her throw her own parties, so she wanted to do one before he got back from his break or whatever.”

“Right.” Jean said again, walking with Marco down the hall to their class. “I guess I don’t really get rich people that much.”

“Aren’t you rich, Jean? Or was Sasha making fun of you in the wrong way?” Marco suddenly felt bad, hoping that wasn’t the case.

“Oh, I mean, I’m just not that rich. The Dreyse’s seem to have more money than they could ever spend. I met the dad once, total prick.” Jean sighed, looking over at Marco. “He told me my dad was a ‘scheming freak’ and said he was glad he died so he didn’t have any more competition at work.”

“Jesus, I’m sorry, Jean.” Marco crossed his arms, feeling like folding in on himself. “Well, Hitch isn’t like that, at the very least. She’s nice, as far as I’ve seen. I’d think she’d treat you well.”

“Hope so, also dunno if her dad would even remember me. He last saw at my dad’s funeral, which was years ago.” Jean shrugged, walking into the classroom. His voice was a bit quieter now, “Best case is he doesn’t even remember me, y’know?”

“I suppose so. Would you call the cops on me if I spray painted their house?” Marco asked, elbowing Jean.

Jean laughed, looking over at Marco. “Shit, no. Go for it.”

“You buy the spray paint and I’m game.” Marco sat down in his desk, pulling off his backpack at the same time. “But really, if I do see her dad, I’d totally pretend I’m drunk and punch him. That’s such an awful thing to say.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me.” Jean sat down himself, sighing and looking at his phone. “Sasha and Connie are game, don’t think they really thought it over based on how quickly they responded. Probably just want the alcohol.” 

Marco chuckled. “I know Armin’s good, I’m making him come, and I’m pretty sure Eren and Mikasa are gonna come as well based on that.”

“Sounds like there’ll be quite a few people then, but nothing like what I’ve heard their parties are like.” Jean glanced towards Ms. Ral’s desk, where she sat moving papers around. “Also, do you think we’re gonna have to finish the quizzes from yesterday?”

“Don’t think so, if I remember, usually she’s just made it last the first day and assumes you don’t know what you didn’t finish.” Marco sat his arms folded on his desk, yawning. 

“Long day?” Jean asked, leaning back in his seat.

Marco chuckled. “Not really, just tired.” The bell rang a few moments after he spoke, and Ms. Ral stood up to begin speaking.

She went over and told them what they’d start with based on what their quizzes, and then about what they’d be learning in the future. It seemed like stuff she’d say on the first day, but it still made sense for her to talk about. Class definitely felt to go by slower for Marco compared to yesterday, so he couldn’t imagine how slow it must have felt for Jean. Class eventually let out, and everyone was on their way.

“Hey, Marco, can I walk with you guys again?” Jean asked, collecting up his things.

Marco nodded, grabbing his backpack and pushing himself up out of his chair, stretching his arms out as he did so. “Yeah, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind.”

Jean nodded and stood up as well, watching Marco. “Alright, cool, Sasha and Connie kinda like ditching me to go home as soon as possible and do whatever, probably sleeping or something, who knows.” He chuckled a bit as he spoke.

“Ah, sounds fun. The sleeping part, I mean. Sometimes I can’t even sleep at night because my siblings are a bit of a pain. My sister Camilla just loves playing her music in the middle of the night, even though she’s in high school, y’know, where it’s actually kind of important to get good grades so you can graduate.” Marco walked out of class, Jean behind him. 

Jean snorted, shaking his head a bit. “Siblings sound kind of annoying.” 

Marco glanced over at him, “Oh, yeah, but they’re not all too bad. They’re sweet kids. Except my older brother, he’s a bit rude sometimes. Dunno why.”

“Ah.” Jean couldn’t really think of anything else to say, but thankfully Armin and Mikasa were just in the distance at the lunch table they’ve designated as ‘theirs’ waiting. Marco waved, shyly smiling at the two standing in front of them. Mikasa glanced over at Armin with a knowing look.

“Hey, Marco, Jean.” Armin said, smiling. “Walking with us again?” 

Jean nodded once, letting out an ‘mhm’ as he did so. Marco grabbed the straps of his backpack, pulling on them a bit. “So, Eren fooling around again?”

“He didn’t say anything, could just be a little late.” Mikasa said with a shrug, looking over to the direction Eren came from last time. “I think his class might be kinda far on the other side of the campus.” 

“Well, I don’t really mind not having him here for now.” Jean joked.

Marco chuckled in response. “I don’t disagree,” he joked back.

Armin rolled his eyes, running a hand through his hair. “You should be glad Eren’s not here, he’d probably start an argument.” 

“Was that a legitimate criticism of Eren?” Marco asked, elbowing Armin. “I thought that was impossible of you.”

Armin groaned, elbowing Marco back. Mikasa nodded her head in the direction Eren was coming from, and they all looked over to see Eren walking over. “Hey, idiots.” Eren said, putting his arms around Armin and Marco’s shoulder’s. “Talking shit?”

“Oh, if only you’d let us.” Marco responded, shrugging off Eren’s arm. “I’d get hit before I could even try, actually, I’d almost get hit, but you’re too slow.” 

Eren scoffed, shoving the side of his fist into Marco’s stomach weakly. “Right. Because we all know you’re the fastest man around. Remember who got last running the mile in gym class in high school? I sure do.”

Mikasa crossed her arms, sighing. “Are we gonna go, or are we leaving Armin’s grandpa to sit in the car forever?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Eren responded, beginning to walk off. The group followed him within a moment.

Jean leaned in to Marco a bit, keeping his eyes ahead. “Y’know, I got last as well, but they were making me run when I was sick because they refused to believe I was sick.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better, that you got last because you were sick?” Marco asked, only half joking. He smirked at Jean, not quite knowing how he’d respond to getting elbowed all of a sudden.

They continued walking, Eren starting a lighthearted argument with Mikasa over who got to use the family computer that night, the rest of them staying quiet as they listened to them bicker. Finally, Mikasa groaned and stopped for a moment, “Eren, it’s not my fault your dumb ass broke your computer by spilling an entire glass of orange juice all over it, and I was going to play a game with Sasha, anyway.”

“How the hell do you spill an entire glass? Was that an exaggeration?” Jean asked, and Eren turned around to glare at him.

“No, not an exaggeration, he dropped the glass and went and took a picture before cleaning it up.” Mikasa said, and Eren moved his arm, about to smack Mikasa’s own arm, but Mikasa grabbed his before he could. “Don’t.”

Jean started laughing, and Armin and Marco joined him. Eren rolled his eyes and turned away to keep walking, pretending he didn’t hear them. Eventually they reached the parking lot, and waved goodbye to Jean before walking to their ride. Armin’s grandpa welcomed them as they all got in, Eren, Marco and Mikasa cramming into the backseat together. “When are you guys gonna get a new car, again?”

“You don’t like this old thing?” Armin’s grandpa asked with a chuckle. 

“It’s a bit cramped, but it’s lasted for so long it’d be a shame to get rid of it.” Marco started, getting flicked by Eren before he could continue. Mikasa shook her head at Eren, with Armin laughing quietly in the front seat. Marco continued, “Anyway, it’s better than my family’s granny car. This one has more style.”

“Thank you, Marco.” Armin’s grandpa laughed a bit and turned on the radio, getting everyone to quiet down enough to not be too rowdy. The rest of the ride was quiet, Eren and Mikasa getting dropped off first, and then Marco. Armin and Marco waved off to each other as Marco went inside his house.

Marco was immediately greeted by his brother Leon heading out the door, a granola bar in his mouth and a cup of coffee in one hand. He pulled the granola bar out of his mouth and nodded his head to his brother. “Hey, Marc.” Leon passed him by, not bothering to say much else before closing the door behind him. 

“Leon off to work?” Marco asked, walking into the kitchen to see Camilla leaning against the counter and watching something on her phone, headphones in.

Antonio was looking in the fridge, but answered anyway, “Yeah, got called in early because someone got sick, threw up all over the place apparently.”

“I don’t think I needed to know that last detail. Where’s Maria?” Marco asked, putting his arm on the fridge door, peering inside.

“Room.” Antonio said, moving to the freezer. 

“Ah. Don’t take the ice cream bars, Grandma’s saving them.”

“Whatever, she can buy more.”

Marco grabbed Antonio’s arm, “She could, or you could pay for them yourself because she already did.”

Antonio groaned, shaking him off. “That’s not fair.” 

Marco just chuckled before leaving, heading up to Maria’s room. He knocked gently, “Maria?” It was silent for a moment before the door opened, Maria peeking up at Marco. “Are you alright, hun?”

She shrugged a bit, turning around and looking at her bed, her old handheld game console sitting on it. “Just playing games.”

“Right, well, I’ll be in my room.” Marco said, and Maria nodded, quickly jumping back on her bed. He closed the door, going into his room and climbing into bed, putting his hands behind his bed. After a moment he realized he forgot to ask Eren and MIkasa if they were okay to go to a party. He completely forgot to ask, just assumed they would, and told Jean that they would, as well. Marco mentally berated himself for a second before he sat up just enough to grab his phone and send their group chat a text. Of course, they were completely fine with it, but Marco still felt a bit stupid for assuming, anyway. Marco lay in bed for a while, eventually falling asleep for the night, albeit quite early.


End file.
